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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1996)
The Battalion FRIDAY April 19, 1996 Opinion Page 7 ? to win A&M’s Forgotten Savior (hey wanted to close it down. A&M was in the red and in trouble, and the legislature wanted to scrap the whole shabang. Our friends in Austin were all set to incor porate the School of Agricul ture into the t.u. system and simply board up the rest. Then, along came one man ... Governor Ross? Sure, we all know that story — I hear that representative still doesn’t know what hit him. Yeah, Ross was important. General Rudder? Yep, he is probably most responsible for what the Univer sity is today. But Ross’ boots would go unpol ished and Rudder might h5ve been forced to attend one of the reme dial military institutions if not for a man named Cushing. I know; around here, the words “Cushing” and “dusty maze” are synonyms. The only time I ever ventured into Cushing was to buy a Coke in that fourth floor dead end — of course, every hall in the Cushing Library was a dead end. Col. Edward Benjamin Cushing’s story, however, needs to be told. The seal of Texas A&M University says 1876 across the bottom. Cush ing was already here. He was Class of ’80 — I hear there were a lot fewer tra ditions back then. In the 1890s, Gov. Ross had indeed saved A&M on the floor of the Texas Legisla ture, but it seemed to be worth nothing by the time Cushing came back in thel9l0’s. A&M, you see, was in debt to the tune of $87,000. That’s about 81,000,000 today. That may not sound like much, but consider the few options open to the school Normally, when a public institution has debt, the legislature either increases fund ing or finds someone to finance more cred it. I guess they hadn’t yet heard of the “General Use Fee.” The ever-supportive leg islature was willing to do neither. Anyway, with no money and no way to get more, A&M was halfway down the road to oblivion — or to Austin, whichever way you want to look at it. But in 1912, Cushing took over as chairman of TAMC’s Board of Directors — now called the Board of Regents, and still without student rep resentation ... but that’s for another column. Cushing personally guaranteed notes of credit, using his own assets as collateral. This bought enough time for the school to both regain stability and to begin a fund raising campaign. In short, Cushing personally saved Texas A&M. But wait, there’s more ... When Old Main burned down, A&M’s library went with it. In other words, TAMC went without a library for sev eral years while the directors searched for money to build a new one. Enter Cushing. Cushing’s father had been ||i ; a rare book dealer, and . Cushing had expanded his own collection to include a huge number of books. In 1924, when Cushing died, he willed his en tire collection to the College. In 1927, when the directors were finally able to build a new li brary, only one name would really fit. Unfortunately, if jl none of Cushing's de scendants has attend ed A&M — or if they have, the archives don’t know about it. That means few people have been around to re ally keep Cushing’s memory alive. But this is Texas A&M, and we remember our own. When we bring our par ents to College Station, we al ways show them Ross, Old Main and the 12th Man. We tell them about respect for traditions and for each other. Next time, add Cushing to the tour. It’s time to remember another man who saved the school. David Taylor is a senior management major The Battalion Established in 1893 Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorials board. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, cartoons and letters express the opinions of the authors. Contact the opinion editor for information on submitting guest columns. Editorials Board Sterling Hayman Editor in Chief Stacy Stanton Managing Editor Michael Landauer Opinion Editor Jason Brown Assistant Opinion Editor Whoopstock Students should take this chance to show how Aggies can unite. The KKK once challenged A&M’s unity, and unity won. In 1993, The Ku Klux Klan planned a rally in College Station. While protests were be ing planned, one group of stu dents decided on a better plan of action. Instead of showing up to the rally to give the KKK the attention it thrives on, student groups were asked to partici pate in a newly created event, Whoopstock Unity Fest ’93. The festival was free to the public, offering local music and entertainment. The KKK came and went, but students at the time did not want the festival to be an isolated incident. Before the event ever hap pened, Ric Gonzalez, an MSC Black Awareness Committee member, told The Battalion he hoped to see the festived become a tradition. “This (The Klan ral ly) may be the reason to unify, but we need to keep it going and show we don’t need a reason to come together,” he said. True to this wish, Whoop stock ’96 will be going on at Simpson Drill Field from noon to 6 p.m. tomorrow. The students and groups who have kept the festival alive deserve credit for their efforts. The best way to show our appreciation, however, is to participate. In the wake of the recent af firmative action march, stu dents should come together to show that political issues do not have to be completely divisive. “Diversity” is almost a dirty word on this campus, but Whoopstock allows stu dents to celebrate the fact that the diverse can unite. The festival is the perfect ex ample of how diversity thrives on unity, not division. Whoopstock offers students the chance to see. each other beyond their organizations, their ethnicity or even their Aggieness. It is a chance to celebrate differences. Whoopstock is the student body’s chance to make its mark on A&M. As past generations have left us the traditions of Muster, Silver Taps and Ele phant Walk, this generation has a chance to continue some thing future Aggies will honor. The KKK came and went at A&M, but even with all the challenges they bring, diversity and unity are welcome to stay. ive House, TheM* weekend at Ok’ lost imps ing to be hart 3 they recrufe e girl in the ^ hne,” sophon* >rg said. “Tk! e more expe rl ' vill help the® have the h«P ’ Aggies ar« this week ” Is a solid eff° ilayers thro 111 being tig^ It takes more than hate to make history B ooker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marking Luther King, Jr. , Malcolm X.... These are just a few of the greatest black leaders in history. Each of their contributions has posi tively impacted society. Their influence enabled an entire race to receive the equality promised by our founding fathers. Any addition to this list would require a renowned, ac complished person leading the tide of a cultural revolution. But, how much water is left in the sea of injustice? Louis Farrakhan seems to think it is overflowing. Last Monday, he kicked off his national tour. As he makes his way across the United States, thousands will gather to hear the man preach the same things advocated 30 years ago. Farrakhan, who organized the Million Man March, ex presses notions similar to Mal colm X, only in the ’60s these ideas were timely. Leaps and bounds have been made since the civil rights movement, yet he hardly recog nizes them. Farrakhan is sim ply a parasite feeding off of the image of Malcolm X. But of course, he claims he is a misunderstood man, just like Malcolm X. In an interview on SO Minutes, Farrakhan was ac cused of being anti-Semitic. Af ter he was shown a clip of one of his speeches implying Jewish people are inhuman sea crea tures controlling the govern ment that worship in the syna gogue of Satan, Farrakhan de nied the charges. Justifying his simile of Jew ish people as octopuses, Far rakhan said it was the white man who has continually ex ploited and oppressed the dark er-skinned man — and history wrote itself. Farrakhan also claimed he was only quoting the Bible, which states the same in the Book of Revelation. His citing of this statement is correct, only he used it incorrectly. It actually reads: “I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Even if Far rakhan had used the quote in the proper context, there’s still a problem — he doesn’t believe in Christianity. Yes, this man, who changed his last name because of his de votion to the Islam religion, only uses Biblical quotes as hateful ammunition against an other race. Astoundingly, his message blatantly contradicts all the love and peace that Is lam espouses. So if Farrakhan is a mali cious, anti-Semitic liar whose ideas are outdated, why all the popularity? Simple — he’s an entertainer. Just like Rush Limbaugh, Farrakhan has the ability to woo audiences by endorsing their outlandish ideas. Only, Far rakhan is dangerous, posing the possibility of an all-out race war. In this day and age, it takes a smooth talker to cause people to regress to such ideas. As a young, aspiring singer, Farrakhan’s nickname was “the Charmer.” Like the snake that he is, Farrakhan has charmed thousands of followers who are spellbound from the poison of his speeches. Sucking the venom of his deadly words out of the minds of thousands requires recognition of Farrakhan as a performer. Al though he may not get $1 billion from any Middle Eastern coun try, he wouldn’t make a bad liv ing as a celebrity impressionist. Farrakhan should wake up from his 30 year nap and smell the roses. To make any progress in today’s society, everyone needs to realize the only race that needs to embrace and fight for each other is the human race. When a man comes along with this endorsement, he might join the ranks of Wash ington, DuBois, King and Mal colm X. But Farrakhan cer tainly doesn’t hold a candle to these leaders. Erin Fitzgerald is a senior political science and English major AOLP offers caring, understanding to fish As a former executive for the Aggie Orientation Leader Pro gram (AOLP), I had a little diffi culty accepting Michael Lan- dauer’s column on April 17. Freshman come to TAMU scared and confused, wondering if they made the correct choice in schools. Do we, the AOLP show them the best side of A&M that we can? Absolutely. Do we lie to them? Never. All Orientation Leaders are told from the beginning that they are to tell the fish the truth. At the same time, howev er, we want the fish to be excit- Mail ed by their choice in school. We want the fish to maintain the Aggie spirit and uphold the Ag gie Code of Honor. We are the first real contact that most freshman receive at A&M, and through our actions, we seek to make them comfortable as a part of the Aggie family. We have no need to “sell” them the University, however, because they are already here. Our Orientation Leaders are not paid because we want them to be excited about what they are doing. If they don’t find enough mo tivation in the helping of fish and their families, we don’t want them as part of the organi zation. Every student at this University went through a New Student Conference. The Orien tation Leaders give freely of their time and do a tremendous job making over 8,000 students feel more comfortable and pre pared at A&M. I would like to congratulate this year’s Orienta tion Leaders and wish them luck in having a fun and helpful summer. I would also like to thank all the past Orientation Leaders who dedicated their time and energy to help new students in need. Paul Springer Class of’97 Halbrook's column assumes too much I’m sure Shannon Halbrook (column, April 11) is not the first person to believe that David Kaczynski was motivat ed by the $1 million reward of fer, and not his conscience, to tell the FBI that he believed his brother, Ted Kaczynski, was the infamous Unabomber. But Halbrook’s contention that Ted Kaczynski is “being shafted” based on “flimsy” evi dence and his brother’s greed is ludicrous. Ted Kaczynski may well be innocent. So far he has been charged only with possessing bomb-making materials. Fortunately, in our society a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. Regardless of popular opin ion or media coverage, only a jury of the defendant’s peers can judge whether he is guilty or innocent and only after hearing evidence from the pros ecution and defense. Jim Hiney Class of ’85 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space al lows. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDon ald. A valid student ID is required. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: Batt@tamvm1.tamu.edu